Happy St. Paddy’s Day!

I’ll make this quick so you can get back to celebrating this great holiday!

I have a special I want to share with you, but first I thought I would share some of my favorite Irish sayings:

This quote explains my life…

“In Ireland the inevitable never happens and the unexpected constantly occurs.”
– Sir John Pentland Mahaff

I like this because it reminds me to appreciate what is.
“The most beautiful music of all is the music of what happens.”
– Irish Proverb

I always thought that since my Irish grandfather was 6 feet tall, that I had a chance…but alas, I just didn’t make it that far in height.
You’ve got to do your own growing, no matter how tall your grandfather was.” – Irish Proverb

“St. Patrick’s Day is an enchanted time — a day to begin transforming winter’s dreams into summer’s magic.”
– Adrienne Cook
I LOVE this quote–there is so much possibility here!

And in honor of this holiday (which was 2nd only to Christmas in my family growing up), I am also offering you a lucky St. Paddy’s Day offer:

Register for the Jumpstart Your JV’s program before midnight tomorrow, Friday, March 18th, and get this new and improved 2 day program for only $77!

http://queenofconnections.com/jumpstartyourjvs.html

This program is for you if:

• You have tried social media and it takes up more time than it is worth.
• You network regularly but you are tired of sifting through the masses to find that gem.
• If speed dating is sounding more fun than making new, often scary connections.
• If you have connected with some people who make you think you “picked them up in the wrong side of town”.

If any of these sound familiar, then this is the program for you!

I will teach you the specifics of what you need to do to start ATTRACTING the right people into your “hood”. There are some simple and quick things that most people just don’t know about that can make the difference between ATTRACTING the “scaries” and attracting some really cool, amazing people who know you, follow you and rave about what you do to their friends!

Check out this page and make sure you get registered now  to SAVE!

http://queenofconnections.com/jumpstartyourjvs.html

Let me know if you have questions!

Lastly, here is my favorite Irish blessing that hangs on a linen on my wall:

May the road rise to meet you…
May the wind be always at your back…
May the sunshine warm upon your face…
May the rains fall soft upon your fields…
And, until we meet again…
May God hold you in the hollow of his hand

To your JV & REALationship-Building success!

MaryPat Kavanagh
Queen of Connections

P.S. Don’t miss this opportunity to save! Get registered now and as my dad always says: “The Luck ‘O the Irish to ya!”

The following story is almost true. And it happens almost every day, to an unsuspecting, cool entrepreneur. Can you relate?

You’ve gotten up the gumption to connect with Life Coach Sally and she says yes. You’ve set up the time and you dial the number. You are excited about making the connection and taking it to the next level, but not sure where it will go.

The conversation is feeling really good—you like her energy and are really starting to see the potential in this relationship.

Then she tells you about her upcoming program in 3 weeks and invites you. Cool!

Then she asks you to share it with your list and if you get 5 people to pay her $5,000, Ms. Sally will let you attend for free!

What happened?

How did a great conversation turn into ME getting pitched by someone I just met?

And why would this person think it’s ok?

You may have experienced this first hand. Or you may even have been Ms. Sally…

The problem?

You just don’t know how to go from meeting someone to creating a strategic ROI (return of investment—it’s your time in this example). Know that this situation is fixable.

What went right?

The conversation went from a Facebook relationship to an email connection to a phone conversation. This is good. The conversation started with learning about each other and about each other’s businesses. This was all good!

What went wrong?

The problem occurred when Ms. Sally decided that the conversation needed to create an ROI now. Truth be told, relationships are not built in a day—even when they start out on Facebook! Conversations and relationships need to grow…they need to be nurtured…and they need time and space to develop into something that will last longer than my 7 year old’s attention span.

How can we fix it?

If you have been subjected to this type of conversation or even created this conversation, have no fear. Do not slam the door on the good energy and possibilities that inspired the connection!

Here are three simple steps to fixing a bad conversation:

1. Focus on the good parts of the conversation—the parts BEFORE the conversation turned selfish.
2. Be grateful for the opportunity to connect and the enlightenment you experienced.
3. Keep the door open. After politely declining (or accepting if it feels right), make sure you allow for future conversations as enlightenment and possibility arises.

And finally, be understanding—for your connection and yourself! Most of us are just plodding away, doing what they think they have to do in order to earn a living, support a family and achieve success.

Have you experienced a conversation turned bad? I would love to hear your experience and how you handled it. Or, hypothetically, how WOULD you handle it?

People ask me almost every day about their JV relationships

“I have this opportunity and I don’t know what to say”

“I’m in the middle of this relationship and it doesn’t feel so good anymore”

“I’m ready to add a JV strategy to my marketing but I’m not sure how to connect or what to say”

Can you relate to any of these questions? Well, I recently published a “Help! I’m stuck with my JV’s” survey to identify the top reasons why business owners, like yourself, are not active and successful in their JV and relationship marketing strategies. The survey has only been live for a few hours, but it’s fascinating to see the responses coming in.

So far, the #1 reason that entrepreneurs are not leveraging a successful JV strategy in their businesses is because they have tried and it didn’t work out as well as they hoped. In fact, when all was said and done, here is what they are saying:

I feel used!

Interesting!

This has prompted me to share the most common mistakes I see people making in their business relationships. Don’t feel bad if you have made any of these mistakes–most of us have at some point or another. Just notice it and stop.

Scenario 1: You’re creating an amazing program and you want to leverage some highly visible JV’s. So you create a “sample” web page with the program/promotion including the potential JV’s you are hoping will participate.

What’s wrong with this? A few things: First off, you are “using” other experts names hoping to attract some cool people. But most of the time, the experts you are “using” don’t even know they are being used until the others are on board. This does NOT promote good feelings when the experts start talking about “that one telesummit-I just did it because you were involved…oh really? I just did it because YOU were involved and I thought you did your due diligence…” See what I mean?

MISTAKE #1: Name dropping without full-disclosure

If you are hoping to get some of these experts on board but they are not there yet, let the person you are speaking to know that.

Second, if the web page is live that you are sharing with potential JV’s, then you are using the experts “visibility” to build your own expertise and visibility without permission. This was a practice that worked a few years ago, but needs to go away. It is NOT a good REALationship builder.

MISTAKE #2: Leveraging experts names without permission

When you publish content of any kind on the web, you give the impression that those experts are already committed. If that is not the case, don’t go there.

Scenario 2: You’ve connected with an amazing friend and love her energy. You both decide to create a program together. You have the skills to write good copy and she has a large social network that seems quite responsive. But a few weeks into the promotion before the program starts, you feel like it’s all on you. It takes way more time to write everything than it takes to just publish it. If you are doing most of the work and splitting the proceeds 50/50, how is that fair??

What went wrong?

There are a few possibilities here, but the most obvious problem is that, while you both had the same end-result in mind, you were not clear about HOW you were going to get there AND how each of you would be compensated.

MISTAKE #3: Not having clarity about the details of the relationship

If you choose to invest your time, energy and even money into a business relationship with another cool person, take the time FIRST to get all the details sorted out-including contingencies for things you can’t think of until they happen. I highly suggest you get everything in writing (here is a simple partnership agreement template for identifying the details), but at the very least, bring it all up in conversation. Perhaps invite your assistants to the call to capture the important details that you might overlook in the excitement of the opportunity.

There are many more scenarios and mistakes that people make. But these are by far the most common.  So learn from other people’s mistakes and don’t fall to far into the excitement of the opportunity without taking at least a moment to ask yourself “Have we worked out all the details here?”

If you want to share your two cents and even receive a new gift I am offering, take one minute to complete the survey at this link:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/KXS3R7N

Whenever I have conversations with my friends and clients about leveraging relationships in their business, the same questions and issues come up.

But I am wondering about YOU–what is YOUR #1 challenge with leveraging relationships in your business?

The “right” relationships can create visibility, increased credibility and even massive, quality traffic to your web site. There are other benefits as well, depending on what you want and where you are at in business.

So what do you want to know about JV’s and relationships?

Take this quick survey (4 questions) and I will answer your questions on this blog.

(here is the link in case the survey doesn’t show well on this page…)

http://bit.ly/realationshipsurvey

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